California has had its fair share of bears breaking into cars, but recent footage of bears entering luxury vehicles has raised eyebrows among insurers. This unusual activity led to the launch of “Operation Bear Claw,” an investigation by the California Insurance Department that has resulted in the arrest of four Los Angeles residents. These individuals are accused of defrauding three insurance companies of nearly $142,000 by falsely claiming that bears had damaged their vehicles.
The fraudulent activity allegedly involved video footage from the San Bernardino Mountains, recorded in January, showing what appeared to be a bear inside a Rolls-Royce and two Mercedes. The claimants provided this footage to insurance companies, asserting that the animal caused scratches on the seats and doors. However, upon closer inspection, the company reviewing the Rolls-Royce footage suspected that the “bear” was not an actual animal but someone wearing a bear costume.
Detectives subsequently discovered two additional claims involving different insurance companies but with the same date of loss and location. These claims also included similar video footage of a “bear” inside Mercedes vehicles. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife had a biologist review the footage, who determined that it was “clearly a human in a bear suit.”
A search warrant was executed at the suspects’ home, where detectives found the bear costume used in the fraudulent videos. The unusual cases of bears breaking into homes or scavenging through trash cans in California have become relatively common, spanning regions from Lake Tahoe in the Sierra to the suburbs of Los Angeles. These bears are known to raid refrigerators and even take dips in backyard pools and hot tubs. However, the claims involving luxury cars took the issue to an unprecedented level of audacity. It remains unclear whether the four individuals arrested have secured legal representation.
